Hey sorry for not updateing or like talking. Ive been really busy with ma exams and dancing and things plus my sisters told me she's pregnant. Im going to be an Aunt! Mystic thanks for your help and I hope this chapter is better. I could do with lots of help...so heres the next chapter. I hope you like it!
Sashenka
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Chapter four
They rode through the night. AmaLy growing more tiresome and weary by the hour, she couldn't help it, she just didn't want to be a burden to anyone but she was being so immature. She couldn't cope with it she began to feel ill as the darkness rolled inwards cloaking her in stars and dark twilight. Tikka saw her eyelids begin to droop and to his shock he saw her grow paler and paler. The glowing honey coloured skin fading fast away. Tikka took hold of the reins as she fell asleep on her horse. He smiled, he knew this must be hard on her, under the current situation. However Tikka would not stop or slow, the riders behind them were too fast for them to even stop for the moment.
The sun slowly began to rise and at last Tikka dared to stop, he felt or rather saw that they had lost the riders by going through dense woodland and over marshes while they preferred to take the longest route around giving them about a week to loose them completely. Tikka stopped in the next village it was small and quaint and definitely not a noble town. All those around wore the brown and forest garments of peasants. Tikka shook his head, he knew about all the poverty that these people suffered and he felt so helpless about it. Anything he did against it would loose him his position in the Nobility and that would be disastrous. The inside information he gathered up was vital to the cause even if he didn't do anything practical about it. But dressed like this no one knew who he was or how strong his magical ability was.
Tikka moved his horse forward and stopped outside an Inn. Then casually reaching over he jerked AmaLy awake. "Hey sleeping beauty come on you need to wake up and get some food" he smiled at her. AmaLy opened her eyes and winced inwardly, normal pepoe would have winced normally at the bright sunlight but she could not see it.. "What..?" she asked rubbing her eyes. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked.
"Just since we rode from our pursuers" he muttered to her. AmaLy sensed people all around her and heard the sounds of work she guessed they were in a small town or village.. AmaLy swung herself down from Pilgrim's back and stumbled as she let her feet hit the floor. Swiftly she steadied herself by resting against her horse's flank.
"Are you ok?" Tikka asked true concern flashing across his face. Not wanting to be a burden AmaLy answered
"Yes I feel fine" she smiled at him "I guess I'm just hungry" she laughed. In truth she felt hot and feverish but she just guessed it was due to travelling so far and so fast.
Tikka led the way into the Inn and he made her sit down before he went to order there food from the bar. As he went AmaLy sensed everything around her feeling very much awake and restless. The numerous tables and chairs would cause a problem. Tikka could seeThe Inn was full of people dressed like him and AmaLy,in the clothes of a peasant. The Inn was also small and very crowded the noise level was also phenomenalAmaLy thought she would go deaf from the loud shouting from the men and the answering giggles from the women.
Sighing AmaLy put her head into her hands the feeling of sickness growing inside of her like a seed. Tikka suddenly was sat beside her. "Are you sure your ok?" Tikka asked her silently. AmaLy lifted her head and her eyes met his but they didn't see it.
"Yes I am fine, thank you" she tried to smile but it died halfway "Im tired that's all" she pressed. Tikka looked at her and nodded "Ok then" he smiled at her and rubbed her back "You look cold". AmaLy jumped she hadn't know he had raised his arm.
"I'm fine" she lied again, slightly feeling the warmth of a large fire on her back.
"Good, well I ordered us a dinner, I thought you could use the energy" AmaLy nodded and inwardy wished that she could see the sights around her.
"So where are we?" she asked Tikka.
"Nowhere special" he laughed "it's a little vilage called Bain very quaint and full of peasants the only source of nobility is the local healer" he shook his head and then remembering that she couldn't see it he added. "I just don't know" he looked at her. "Such a gift" AmaLy muttered softly
"What is?" he asked
"To see what I cannot, to see each person's face and to be able to look at them"
"Oh you still want to see if I'm charming huh?" he asked. AmaLy laughed and shook her head. "Give me your hands" he said. "Come on Im not going to amputate them"
AmaLy frowned and hesitantly she held out her hands. Tikka took her hands in two immensely smooth ones and raised them to his face, there he gently pressed her hands onto his cheeks. "You can tell what I look like from touch" he said AmaLy smiled.
"You just couldn't wait for me to touch you eh?" swiftly she ran her hands over his face.
Tikka's face seemed smooth and handsome but still masculine. AmaLy felt tears spring to her eyes the very thought that she could on feel but not see brought her close to tears. AmaLy dropped her hands and looked away. "Thank you" she muttered. Tikka smiled and didn't say anything, he knew that she had got upset and he knew that she was very touchy about her blindness. "Food's here eat up young Sparrow" Tikka said as an elderly gentlemen placed two large plates on the table. AmaLy picked up her knife and fork and ate hungrily.
That night they spent there time sleeping in one of the rooms in the Inn, Tikka dutifully slept on the floor and made no attempt to invade AmaLy's privacy. In the morning Tikka was callm and said they could stay for a day or two. In the morning AmaLy felt worse than she had ever done before the fever raging into a nightmarish sickness which needed all her will to control and hide. They both dressed and made there way downstairs for breakfast the sun shining happily down upon the scene.
There they ate breakfast in peace, the Inn was much quiter than it had been when they first arrived it almost seemed deserted but the man behind the bar was working happily enough. "Excuse me" Tikka said as he came to clear away the dishes.
"Yes sir?" the man replied formally
"Where is everyone?" Tikka asked politely looking quite puzzled.
"Well its always quite around this time in a morning, its when everyone does there early chores around here, where a farming village you know…there cows to be milked and chickens to be fed." He said as though this was the most obvious thing in the world and that Tikka was stupid for even asking. Tikka said nothing to his sarcastic tone but he simply smiled. "Thank you" he said and pushed a silver piece into his hand.
The man stared at him silver was not often seen in these parts. "Tikka where are we heading next, are we still moving south to the city?" AmaLy asked once the man had departed. Tikka nodded and then hit himself inwardly as he remembered that she couldn't see. "Aye" he replied.
Just then as he leaned back in his chair he felt a terrible twang at his heart and from AmaLy's cry of pain he guessed she too had felt something similar. "What…what was that" she stammered clutching her chest.
"Something coming" Tikka whispered and closed his eyes focusing his energy on seing what was after them once more. It couldn't be the dark riders he had sensed just days before. "Its them" AmaLy cried "There's four of them"
"How do you know that?" he asked her surprised by the knowledge she had just gained. He himself had seen it but she had been quicker than him.
"I used the technique you taught me" she said in haste as she scrambled up from her seat and almost fell over.
Tikka caught her arm to steady her "We need to move and quickly, they are already in the village, but I do not know these parts. I have no knowledge of the place I saw them or how near it was to this Inn"
AmaLy shook her head in despair "Sir!" she cried to the man who had waited upon them.
"Yes Maam"
"I request that you hide yourself and quickly man, its for your own safety trust me" she told him swiftly before gathering up her riding cloak and pulling it about her shoulders. "We need to make haste" Tikka said.
AmaLy nodded "Then lets go" she muttered.
Tikka grabbed her arm and led her through the labyrinth f tables and chairs, they were almost at the door when four of the riders they had feared burst through spilling golden light upon the scene.
They hissed and drew there swords. "Hand over the girl and you shall go free" one said in a crackly voice that sounded like a snake slithering over gravel. Tikka drew his sword and pushed AmaLy behind him so that she was shielded.
"Never, she has chosen already" he glanced around sizing up his opponents. Tikka knew that there was no way he could win this fight, there were two many of the riders and the had a greater strength. "Little Sparrow now is the time to flap your wings and fly" he mused out loud.
"I will not run, I have no fear of death" she said boldly. Tikka turned around and looked at her. Tikka didn't speak out loud he didn't move his lips but inside her head AmaLy could here him talking.
"Have no fear of death if you will, but you are either extremely brave or extremely foolish to not fear what they will do to you when you are in there hands. If they capture you they will make you do things that will unleash terrible force and destruction, they will make you do things you have only ever imagined in your worst nightmare" Tikka turned back around to face his opponents his voice still echoing through her head. "AmaLy I will not be able to keep them at bay for long, please I beg you take your horse and flee. Fly little Sparrow Fly"
Tikka was almost shocked sensless when he heard her reply inside of his own head, he realised for the first time that he did not know the true extent of the power she possessed. "I refuse to run unless you run with me" she told him using telepathy.
"I am as good as dead, if we both run we will both die…at least this way you shall live. Carry on South until you hit a great cliff. Wait there as long as you can and someone will find you…now go" he telepathed back to her.
"NO" AmaLy said out loud.
"GO!" Tikka shouted as the first attacker lunged at him with a large and deadly looking sword. Tikka parried it and swing his sword around the attacker ducked as Tikka's sword narrowly missed cutting his head off. AmaLy used her senses to search out a weapon of any kind. Dimly she remembered there had been a fire roaring the night she came, that meant a fireplace and a fireplace meant there had to be a poker.
AmaLy stumbled over to the fireplace and her frantic hands found the long hard metal spike. AmaLy stood and twisted around one of the mysterious clad men swung his sword at her aiming to injure her only. AmaLy deflected it with the poker and kicked him backwards where he stumbled and fell over a chair. AmaLy was on him in a minute and with the poker smacked him around the head, instantly he fell unconscious. AmaLy reached down with a shaking hand to pull off the hood they wore and as she felt her attackers face and was shocked to find that in fact it was no man or monster at all. It was a woman.
"Tikka whatever you do, don't kill them" AmaLy cried out as one of them grabbed her from behind. "Why?" he asked. However they were both too busy and in too much trouble for any more conversation.
AmaLy sensed that Tikka was still battling with two at the door. AmaLy had put one out of action and the last attacker had her from behind. Expertly AmaLy used the back flip that her father had taught her, she launched her attacker forwards off her back and with a yelp she went soaring overAmaLy, she, the deadly attacker,turned however around in mid air like an acrobat and landed catlike in front of AmaLy. "Surrender little girl!" she hissed. AmaLy shook her head and bent to the floor picking up a sword that lay forgotten. "Never" AmaLy said quietly.
"We would take great care of you" the feminine attacker growled.
"Yeah sure you would". AmaLy raised her sword as her attacker lunged at her but then she heard a male voice, one that she was sure she had never heard before and yet it seemed to bring warmth and familiarity with it.
"Anat, Farlew, Canet!" the voice shouted. AmaLy turned just in time as she felt something hot scratch across her cheek. A loud shriek from in front of her alerted her to the fact that she was not the target, the woman was. Two more screams of pain echoed and AmaLy heard two bodies fall dead to the floor.
AmaLy raised the sword again suddenly wary. "Calm yourself" the voice said. "If your not careful you will poke someone's eye out just watch where your going will you" he laughed.
AmaLy dropped the sword and it fell heavily from her hand.
"JuAnn!" Tikka said with surprise.
"You alright over there Tikka, my old friend" the man named JuAnn nodded. JuAnn had brown hair that fell in strands over his handsome face. His eyes were brown and he seemed to be quite funny.
"I'm great thank you," AmaLy cleared her throat as Tikka spoke. "Sorry. JuAnn this is AmaLy, she's the saviour" Tikka said.
JuAnn bowed to her and when AmaLy didn't say anything he looked to Tikka frowning. "JuAnn she's blind" Tikka explained.
"Oh I'm sorry M'lady " he walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "My services are yours"
"AmaLy this as I said is JuAnn, he's another guardian who will help us. I wasn't expecting to find him so soon, but it seems he found us" Tikka explained a little further.
"That I did" JuAnn smiled. "AmaLy sorry about your cheek, I'm still practising magic and my aim's not exactly brilliant" JuAnn scratched his head.
"Its alright, it doest hurt" she smiled. AmaLy lifted her hand to her cheek and found it damp, she had not realised she was bleeding.
Tha pain in her cheek was nothing to the fever that burst inside of her sharply like a pack of rabid wolves. AmaLy thought about telling Tikka, but before it became too much of concious thought she dismissed it. Tikka had just saved her life and she suddenly acknowledged it. Tikka had been ready to sacrifice his life for her own and that thought was staggering. Tikka was prbably tired and worn out, he did no need some pathetic teenager bugging him with petty complaints.
Dimly, AmaLy realised that the two men who had just saved her small, pathetic life were talking so she made herself listen. They were talking about what they were going to do next.
"I think we should keep moving" AmaLy suddenly announced her voice spreading warmth through the scene. "If they go here muchfaster than we expected," she kicked one of the women. "We need to ride faster still"
